368 SHORT COMMUNICATIONS

NORTHWARD MIGRATION TO fered from breeding cholybea of Surinam in longer SURINAM OF SOUTH AMERICAN wing and tail and in paler throat and breast, the brownish-gray feathers being edged with very light MARTINS (PROGiVE) gray or whitish. As might be expected of Progne breed- ing in the Southern Hemisphere spring, in August and E. EISENMANN September these migrants (unlike Surinam breeding American Museum of Natural History New York, New York 10024 m&ins) were nearing completion of wing and tail molt. or (in the case of a few adults) had freshly com- AND pleted the molt. Wing and tail measurements agreed F. HAVERSCHMIDT with those given for domestica by Zimmer (op. cit.), Wolfskuilstraat 16 except for certain individuals with outer primaries and Ommen, Holland rectrices either old and excessively worn or broken, or so new as not yet to be full grown. Even for these Little is known of the extent of migration across the individuals, the ultimate dimensions of the outermost Equator of land birds breeding in temperate South and longest primary (the ninth) could be sufficiently America. Recognition of such migration has presented estimated for identification from the fact that when difficulty because often the same species (usually a full grown it is usually 9-12 mm longer than the slightly different subspecies) breeds in the tropical seventh. Moreover, the diagnostic tail length could area to which the more southern population migrates. be determined in some cases when the true wing Zimmer showed that two, relatively large, southern length could not be definitely ascertained. races of black-backed martins, called by him Progne The five 1967 Marienburg specimens with dusky chulybea domestica and P. &wn.estica elegans, winter underparts proved to be Southern Martins, currently in the Amazon basin (Amer. Mus. Novitates, no. 1723, called P. mo&sta elegant, which breeds from 1955). Eisenmann (Auk 76:528, 1959) called atten- through western and central south to tion to the identification value of the difference in Chubut. Three of the 1967 birds appear to be im- time of wing molt in northern and southern popula- mature males, having a little gloss on underparts; two tions, and reported on the very few trans-Equatorial seem wholly unglossed below and may well be fe- records of these martins. The present note provides males, although sexed on the labels as males. One evidence that they migrate regularly across the Equa- suspects that the difficult sexing of immatures was tor, wintering farther north than previously realized. based partly on appearance, for all but one of the The widespread, tropical race of the Gray-breasted white-bellied Marienburg birds are labelled as fe- Martin (P. c. chdybea) is a common breeder in the males, although some are certainly males. The 1968 coastal and savanna region of Surinam; it has been birds with dark underparts were identified as elegans recorded nesting from May well into July (Haver- by Haverschmidt. Schmidt, Birds of Surinam. Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh. These records indicate that as far north as Surinam 1968. p. 343). At times, during this period of the (5-6” N), P. c. domestica is a regular migrant and year, Haverschmidt has noted, in isolated trees, flocks austral winter resident in large numbers, with definite of this species that might have been migrants; on 1 extreme dates of 5 May-l September, and that in the September 1963 at Maasstroom (Commewijne District) flocks of domestica small numbers of the more south- he collected from such a flock, on a dead tree in a ern elegant occur. While these are the most northern lagoon, 9 specimens ( 6 males and 3 females). Their definite records of domestica, this distinction may weight (mean, 49.4 g; range, 45-52) exceeded that of prove to belong to certain large specimens taken in local birds (3445 g). Owing to lack of comparative Curapao, first tentatively reported by Voous as nomi- material at the Leiden Museum, where the specimens nate chalybea (Stud. Fauna Curacao and Caribbean were deposited, subspecific identification could not be Island 7:207, 1957; but cf. Ardea 53:227, 1967). As made; thus they were not mentioned in “Birds of to eleguns, while a single July specimen from eastern Surinam,” the text of which was then near completion. is still the only one for Middle America, Dr. In August 1967 Mr. Th. Renssen, who lives on the W. B. Robertson, Jr., found and identified (in Field sugar plantation, Marienburg, on the left bank of the Mus. Nat. Hist.) an immature male taken at Key West, lower Commewijne River, observed thousands of mar- Florida, on 14 August 1890 by J. W. Atkins, on the tins in the cane fields, some sitting on telephone wires. same date with a northern Purple Martin (P. s. subis). Among the birds were a small number with almost Appropriately, the primary molt of the Southern Hemi- wholly dark underparts. On Haverschmidts’ sugges- sphere bird was approaching completion, while that tion, Renssen collected 20 specimens on 6, 13, and 20 of its Northern Hemisphere ally, collected contempo- August, including five with dusky underparts. All of raneously, was beginning. these birds were larger than the local I.’ chdybea; Tuxonomic wnsiderations. Of special taxonomic they weighed 38-58 g (mean, 48). These specimens, interest are two Marienburg specimens, taken on 13 together with those taken in September 1963, were and 20 Aucust 1967 (Leiden Museum reg. nos. 51697 sent for identification to Eisenmann at the American and 51106), which seem to be hybrids-between do- Museum of Natural History. In 1968 Renssen again me&& and elegam. No. 51097 has the throat and observed at Marienburg large numbers of martins, and breast blackish as in elegans, but the lower underparts collected a total of 22 specimens on 5 and 19 May, are white as in domesticu, although with heavier dark 2 and 9 June, and 1 July. Among these, five were mottling about the feather shafts; while sexed as a essentially all dark below (taken 5 and 19 May, 9 “ 9 9” it seems from the amount of gloss to be a male June, and 1 July). In measurements and appearance molting out of first winter (basic) plumage. No. 51196 they resembled those collected in 1967. is nearer to an immature domestica in appearance, but The specimens taken at Maasstroom in September the brownish-gray of throat and breast appears darker 1963, and all the white-bellied birds (with two ex- than normal and extends further down over the upper ceptions mentioned below) taken at Marienburg in abdomen; the lower abdomen shows considerable dark August 1967, were identified by Eisenmann as P. c. mottling, which might perhaps be the result of excep- domestica, which breeds from southern and tional wear exposing the feather bases. It should be eastern Bolivia to northeastern Argentina. They dif- mentioned that P. c. chulybeu is occasionally melanis- SHORT COMMUNICATIONS 369 tic; thus two adult male specimens from Surinam (in northern and southern forms, the most migratory Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.), evidently nominate chulybea, members of the superspecies, and also in the sedentary have a glossy blue-black chest (but not throat). Con- populations of the Galapagos and coastal , may ceivably the two assumed hybrids might be melanistic have evolved independently (serving different func- examples of donmsticcr. One reason for rejecting this tions) from the white-bellied, broadly distributed, view is that they agree with certain specimens from a tropical P. chalybeu stock, in which the two sexes are series (also in Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.) taken at Leones, essentially alike. In a&is and eleguns, of North and CXrdoba, central Argentina, including numerous typical South Temperate Zones respectively, the melanization eleguns but no typical domestica. The collector, the of the adult males has uroduced a striking sexual di- late W. H. Partridge, expressed (in litt.) the opinion morphism, which may facilitate rapid pair formation that his series of birds, variably intermediate between and procuring of nest sites in these long distance elegans and domestica, were hybrids. In January, migrants with a relatively short breeding season. The when they were collected in Argentina, these martins blackness of the sedentary Galapagos and Peruvian were already on migration. While the literature gives forms may have developed as a cryptic adaptation to the impression that eIegans and domestica are broadly living in crevices of dark rock cliffs; but the possibiity‘ sympatric, this is almost surely not the case, although does exist that the peripheral populations were de- their ranges evidently touch and may overlap nar- rived from migrant e2egan.s carried aff course, rather rowly. During transience one form may enter the than from P. chatybea of the continental tropics. range of the other, and on migration they evidently Food. The abundance of martins in the cane fields associate to some extent. Probably, as with all mem- at Marienburg in 1967 may have reflected an infesta- bers of the Progne subis superspecies, they are allo- tion of froghoppers (Homoptera: Cercopidae). The patric representatives. The hybridization noted raises gizzards of the birds were filled with these , the question whether e!eguns may not be more which Dr. G. C. Geyskes of the Leidcn Museum iden- closelv related to P. chalubea domestica than to the tified as of two species, AencoZenru fZuoiZutera (Urich) much~smaller P. modesta of the Galapagos Archipelago, and D&r.ssor trW.s F. In addition, stomach contents with which it has customarily been associated specifi- included Hymenoptera (Braconidae, Stephaniidae, and cally. The isolated Galapagos population is, in both Formicidae: Attinae). One of the etegans had swal- sexes, the darkest of the entire superspecies; the adult lowed four large dragonflies (Odonata: Aeschnidae: males are wholly blue-black, even lacking the (usually Coryphrreschnu uiriditas Calv.), a species so big that concealed) white back tufts possessed to a varying Dr. Geyskes thought it could only have been caught degree by all other forms, and the females are uni- when emerging. formly sooty below. Wholly blue-black plumage in We are indebted to Th. Renssen for callecting the adult males is shared not only by modesta and eleguns, martins, to G. C. Geyskes for identification of stomach and by murphyi, endemic to the Peruvian coast (gen- contents, and to W. B. Robertson, Jr., for calling at- erally considered conspecific with P. mod&a), but tention to the Florida specimen. also by the distant, temperate North American, P. subis. The increased melanization in the extreme Accepted for publication 16 March 1969.

THE FOX SPARROW ON THE WEST Pass area of the central Cascades in Linn County, SLOPE OF THE OREGON CASCADES some 29 miles south of my 1969 collecting locality. That specimen, a female in breeding condition (brood RICHARD C. BANKS patch present, oviduct convoluted), was sent to the Bird and Mammal Laboratories of the Bureau of Sport Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife; Fisheries and Wildlife, where it was prepared by U. S. National Museum Roxie C. Laybourne and deposited in the U. S. Na- Washington, D. C. 20560 tional Museum. The bird represents the race P. i. megarhynchu. At the time of identification of this Fox Sparrows, Passerella iliuca, of three subspecies specimen, the bird taken earlier was re-examined, breed in the state of Oregon (Gabrielson and Jewett, through the courtesy of Ned K. Johnson, and its Birds of Oregon. Oregon State Monogr. 2:586, 1949). identity as P. i. fulua was confirmed. One race. P. i. me~arhvncha (murivosae of Gabrielson Thus it appears that Fox Sparrows of two subspecies and Jew&t, op. cc.), nests on the west slope of the were breeding some 26 miles and eight years apart on Cascades in extreme southern Oregon. Another form, the west slopes of the Cascades in central Oregon, P. i. f&a, occurs on the east slope of the Cascades in where the species has not previously been reported. southern and central Oregon. The third, P. i. schtia- Rather extensive logging operations have been car- C~U, occurs in the eastern portion of the state. None ried on in this region for a number of years. In the has been reported on the west slope of the Cascades area which I visited in 1960, small tracts were clear- in the central part of Oregon. cut and burned; the areas then began a slow recovery On 21 June 1969 I collected a male Fox Sparrow while other areas were cut. This resulted in a mosaic in breeding condition along the North Santiam River of small tracts of various successional stages inter- near the junction of Bugaboo Creek, at an elevation spersed with tracts of mature forest. The brushy areas of 2560 ft, in Linn County, Oregon, on the west slope of new growth represented a habitat not previously of the Cascades. The specimen was identified as a present, at least to any extent, in that portion of the representative of the race fulua, and was deposited in west slope of the Cascades. the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. Although I The situation apparently is quite similar where the realized that this represented a considerable extension second bird was obtained. Nehls (in litt.) stated, “The of the accepted range of this subspecies, no report area in which this colony was found was recently cut was made. over leaving almost no trees. The ground cover is On 24 July 196S Harry B. Nehls and William almost all low brush and bushes of the mountain‘ Thackaberry obtained a Fox Sparrow near the con- laurel ’ type, few being over eight feet high. Heavy fluence of Park Creek and Danny Creek in the Santiam timber still surrounds the area. . . .” Other breeding